The first house I bought in Kodiak was in a low spot, next to a creek. A construction company, in order to build a Safeway store and a parking place for the containers covered up the creek with dirt and within days I had water in my crawlspace. It took me a while to get the authorities to protect my property (the U.S. Corps of Engineers was instrumental in forcing the contractors to place a huge perforated culvert underground to drain the place--the local authorities wouldn't do diddly squat!). Then I also had problems with my sewer pump. The house was below the main sewer line, and the pipe that went from the house to the sewer had an elbow in it, where grease, poop, toilet paper, etc. tended to plug up the works. I had to replace the sewer pump once, and had to have a plumber use a rotorooter to clear the pipe (a very long pipe, I might add) several times. Enough! I sold the house and had another one built elsewhere, on a ridge, about 40 or 50 feet above the sewer line. The plumber (the same one who had been fixing the problems in the old house) jokingly told me to stand up before flushing the toilet after taking a dump, or the vacuum created by the stuff and the water rushing downhill would have made my behind stick to the toilet seat. I never had any plumbing problems in the new house. Here in Alabama my house is about 6 feet above the deep drainage ditch on the side of the highway. There is no sewer line--we have a septic tank--but when it rains hard I am glad we are on a small knoll: the drainage ditch turns into a small river, and the back lawn becomes a swamp. Fortunately the soil is 90% sand, so the water disappears in a couple of hours after it stops raining. I don't plan to move any more, but if I were to buy another house it would never be in a depression or even on flat ground.
collie
